1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus that forms an image by ejecting ink on a sheet while causing a print head to scan across the sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since an inkjet printing apparatus ejects liquid ink onto a sheet from a print head, it is necessary to dry the ink with a fixing apparatus in order to fix ejected ink onto the sheet. The drying process for ink ejected onto a sheet affects print quality and throughput. For this reason, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3036504 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H05-270100 (1993) disclose technology that optimizes a drying process by controlling factors such as the temperature and airflow of a fixing apparatus for fixing ink, and the sheet conveyance speed.
Meanwhile, in an inkjet printing apparatus capable of automatic duplex printing, ink fixing takes more time because more ink is used compared to one-sided printing, and thus there is a problem of reduced throughput. There are also limits on raising the temperature and airflow of a fixing apparatus in order to shorten ink fixing time.
Also, in a printing apparatus using a fixing apparatus, it is necessary to wait until the fixing apparatus temperature reaches a given temperature when the printing apparatus is activated, for example, and thus the wait time until the first printing is initiated becomes longer. Likewise, in such cases, there are limits on increasing the fixing apparatus's heater capacity to shorten the wait time.